This web
page is designed to provide information about indigenous subsistence whaling
in the Western Arctic in a historical context that extends from pre- European
contact to the present. The focus is on traditional whaling practices
of northern Alaskan communities and
on the environmental conditions in which whaling has taken- and continues
to take-place. This site is intended to provide information to a wide
range of audiences including people living in the Arctic, students, the
general public, and people conducting research in the North.

Much of
the material on the site is a product of several years' work in which
information about Arctic conditions and Arctic whaling has been gathered
and discussed by academic researchers from many fields and local experts
(see Contact Information). This
ranges from historic to contemporary studies in whale biology, from long-range
geological studies of coastal formation to current work on climatic conditions,
from archaeological and oral historical accounts of whaling in the recent
past to contemporary issues issues such as the responsibilities shared
by men and women, the costs that whaling captains have in supporting their
crew, or the very special decisions that have been demanded by recent
fall whaling seasons. The project was sponsored by the Alaska
Eskimo Whaling Commission and funded by the National Science Foundation
(see Project). A final workshop
in Anchorage, in March 2000, brought many of the participants together
for an open-ended discussion not only of the results but of future research
directions.

In addition,
the site also provides links to Native whaling in Russian Chukotka and
the Central and Eastern Arctic, links to a variety of sites about Yankee
whaling as well as links to sites of other agencies, such as NOAA and
the US Weather Bureau which may provide information of interest to site
visitors.